March 14, 2007: The European
Commission has released updated rules
for Europe’s audiovisual media
services.

The new directive, titled Audiovisual
Without Frontiers, is a modernisation
of the 1989 Television Without
Frontiers and is in response to
technological developments, the pace
of which have made it necessary to
revise many of the former rules
substantially.

These days, developments such as web
TV, interactive TV and movies on
mobile phones are readily available
across Europe and, they are competing
on “an almost equal footing” with the
‘traditional’ scheduled broadcast,
according to Viviane Reding of the
Commission for Information Society and
Media,

The consumers not only have a much
wider choice of programme content
because of the increase in cable,
satellite and digital channels, they
are also able to interact with
broadcasters in ways that simply did
not exist in 1989 – be it televoting,
entering competitions or even donating
to charity via the ‘red button.’

According to Reding, “the key issue is
that rules devised for one-to-many
broadcasting are being rendered
obsolete by the shift to one-to-one,
on-demand services.”

The new rules, therefore, are less
rigid, allowing European TV and
film-makers more freedom and ensuring
that audiovisual media service
providers are only bound by
legislation in the country where they
are established, rather than having to
comply with 27 different sets of
rules.

The Commission for Information Society
and Media hopes to guarantee that
national regulatory authorities are
independent from national governments
and from all audiovisual media service
providers, and to ensure that they
work impartially and transparently.
Such independence is considered
essential to democracy and vital for
ensuring media pluralism.

“My aim is this – Europe’s audiovisual
content industry should flourish under
one of the most modern and flexible
sets of rules in the world.” Reding
said.

The question of advertising also was
discussed. Under the updated
directive, rules on TV advertising are
to be less specific than they have
been since 1989, with the decision on
when and how to interrupt programmes
left to broadcasters and film-makers
and not predetermined in Brussels.

However, 12 minutes remains the
maximum amount of advertising
permitted in any given hour while
films, children's programmes, current
affairs programmes and news are not to
be interrupted by adverts more than
once every 30 minutes.

The Commission remains firm on matters
such as cultural diversity, protection
of minors, consumer protection, media
pluralism, and the fight against
racial and religious hatred and the
new directive reaffirms all of these
as pillars of Europe's audiovisual
model.